Build Your Own Kaleidescope

Name of the piece: Build your own kaleidescope (Warning: future versions deviated from this theme and may henceforth be known by other names). 

How your prototype evolved from the original idea to the current prototype: My original vision was to ensconce the whole production in a cube because I wanted to blow glitter around using fans and use the mirrors to make the glitter go on forever. This turned out to be a pure and classic example of something that "worked perfectly in my head." Luckily, the infinite reflections still looked brilliant and, after getting glitter all over the common spaces of my house, I found that people really liked playing with the box my taking off the lid (I never intended for the lid to be removable in my original conception of the project) and putting their own objects in the box and creating personalized infinityscapes. 

Ideal visitor experience: I'm trying to strike the right balance of a compelling baseline experience with enough incorporation of the user's creativity to make the experience really exploratory. Ideally, I'd like users to enjoy the cube regardless of whether they're inclined to mess with it's innards or not. Sebastian suggested a rally constrained set of items that the user would be allowed to manipulate. I agree; I think people are overwhelmed by too many options and that constraints actually encourage people to be more creative. One direction that I'm exploring is whether or not user-controlled lighting provides enough interactivity for a good experience. 

Problems you encountered/next steps for this piece (adjustments, rebuild, new ideas, let go of…): Like I mentioned, I had too much stuff when I last presented this. I need to think carefully about what options I present to the user to strike the right balance between user created infinityscapes and something that's visually delightful as soon as you stumble across it.